B2B growth marketing is one of the most misunderstood disciplines out there.
Pour money into paid ads. Spend weeks cold emailing and calling. Show up at trade shows begging for introductions…
Then complain when your pipeline is empty.
Most marketers market to buyers at every stage of the purchase journey without ever knowing where their buyers are.
Buyer journey mapping frameworks help teams get laser-focused.
Align marketing assets to perfectly match the ideal buyers’ progression through the buying process — giving you customers your company was meant to have.
You Will Learn:
- Buyer Journey Mapping Definition
- Why Your B2B Growth Marketing Strategy Needs It
- The 3 Main Stages of Every Buyer’s Journey
- How to Map Content Types to Stages
- Buyer Journey Mapping Frameworks to Implement ASAP
Buyer Journey Mapping Defined
Buyer journey mapping is simply the visualization of every stage a potential customer goes through from when they first identify a problem they have…all the way through purchasing your solution.
In B2B however, that journey is far from linear.
Recent research from Gartner revealed that 80% of B2B buying journeys are completed without any direct interaction with a vendor.
By the time the average buyer contacts your sales team, most of the decision has already been made.
If your marketing strategy doesn’t reflect this reality… you’ve already lost.
Buyer journey maps clarify…
- What buyers are thinking at each stage of the buying process
- The types of content they actually want to consume
- The channels they prefer to be reached on
- When to give up on a prospect and pass them to sales
Why Your B2B Growth Marketing Strategy Needs Buyer Journey Mapping
Here’s the tough truth the majority of B2B marketing teams refuse to accept.
Buyers are already doing their homework.
With you or without you.
Buyer behaviour insights are becoming easier and cheaper to come by. The Croc highlights that the data is clear — the marketers who understand buyer behaviour are the ones who win.
B2B buyers say personalised content matters most during the research phase of the buying process. But most businesses continue to blast out generic content that targets every buyer at every stage.
It’s like swatting flies with a sledgehammer.
Not only is this costly and ineffective but without a strong foundation in buyer journey mapping your marketing team will continue making costly mistakes:
- Wasting money on channels buyers aren’t using
- Publishing content that doesn’t speak to a stage in the journey
- Losing deals during the consideration phase and never understanding why
- Sending leads to sales too early or too late
The 3 Core Stages of a B2B Buyer’s Journey
All buyer journey mapping frameworks consist of three stages. Get these right first and watch your B2B growth marketing strategy begin to sharpen.
Awareness
Problem > Solution
Buyers know they have a problem they need to solve but lack awareness of solutions.
Buying professionals are Googling symptoms, not product features, at this stage. Generic ads and brand messaging aren’t persuasive here. Instead, try content that centres around the pain points the buyer is experiencing.
Content Ideas: Blog posts, trend reports, thought leadership.
Consideration
Problem = Solution
Buyers have diagnosed their problem and defined what they need from a solution.
It’s simple maths at this stage. Consideration is where most of the B2B growth magic happens. Buyers are vetting vendors and painting targets on shrinking shortlists. Research by 6sense found that 95% of the time the winning vendor is on the buyer’s shortlist prior to any sales emails or calls.
If you’re not already on that list when they contact you… you can forget about the deal.
Content Ideas: Case studies, success stories, webinars.
Decision
Solution – Problem > 0
Buyers are ready to buy. They probably already have — they just want you to solve their problem as quickly as possible.
Content at this stage is about removing friction and answering last-minute concerns. Think checkouts, trials, demos.
Content Ideas: Free trials and audits, ROI calculators, pricing guides.
Mapping Content Types to Each Stage
Time for some heavy lifting.
B2B buyers view an average of 13 pieces of content before they make a purchasing decision. Aligning your content strategy to this reality is critical. Let’s break down the steps:
Step 1 — Figure out what questions buyers are asking at each stage. Sales reps, support tickets, and your CRM are gold mines of information. Start digging.
Step 2 — Conduct a content audit. Map every blog post, guide, and video to one of the three stages. Most businesses produce too much decision content and not enough of the earlier stages.
Step 3 — Fill your gaps. If you lack awareness content, teach. Consideration content should educate buyers on why you’re the best solution. Decision content is about giving buyers a reason to say yes.
Step 4 — Channel vs Stage. Align content types to the stages above and also consider where your content lives. Think Awareness = SEO and LinkedIn. Consideration = email nurture and retargeting. Decision lives inside the sales process.
Step 5 — Measure, rinse, repeat. Use content performance metrics to identify what moves buyers to the next stage. Time-on-page during the awareness stage. Pipeline influence at consideration. ROI at decision.
Buyer Journey Mapping Frameworks Every Growth Marketer Should Know
There are dozens of models out there. Here are three worth paying attention to:
1. The Linear Purchase Funnel
Awareness → Consideration → Decision. The simplest journey map and for good reason — it works. It’s the best starting point for every B2B growth marketer. Linear funnels are intuitive and allow for easy planning.
2. The Gartner Buying Loop
Like long articles that nobody asked for but everyone complains about — Gartner loops take into account the non-linear, complex process of B2B buying. Think about this stat: the average buying group contains 8.2 stakeholders. Each of those stakeholders will loop through stages multiple times before closing. Gartner loops cater for that behaviour.
3. Jobs-To-Be-Done Framework
Rather than stages, this framework focuses on the desired outcome the buyer is trying to achieve with their purchase. Exceptionally useful for product-led growth marketing teams and purchases that touch multiple stakeholders.
The framework you choose depends on deal size, complexity, and your team’s marketing maturity.
Bringing Buyer Journey Mapping Together
Buyer journey mapping is not some nice-to-have component of your B2B growth marketing strategy.
Buyer mapping is what separates shouting into the void and dominating your niche.
Quick recap:
- There are 3 stages to map: Awareness, Consideration, Decision
- Audit existing content then identify gaps
- Map each content type to a stage and preferred channel
- Use a framework that makes sense for your customers
- Track performance against pipeline generation
Think of buyer journey mapping less like an activity and more like the engine that powers your entire marketing operation.
When implemented correctly your messaging will reach the right buyer, with the right offer, at exactly the right time.
